A truth universally acknowledged
by thegirl20
Summary: A continuation of episode 3.08. Jane and Maura discuss marriage.


Their laughter died away into a warm silence. Jane watched Maura close her eyes, the corners of her mouth still turned up in a smile.

"So...how come we're talking trains and cakes and Red Sox jerseys?" Maura's brow creased and she turned her head to look at Jane, bringing Jane's attention to exactly how close they were lying to each other.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, not so long ago you were telling me you didn't think marriage was for you. Now you're insisting on telling me every little detail about your dream wedding." She poked Maura's side playfully. "What gives, Dr Isles?"

Maura's eyes returned to the ceiling and she shrugged; the rise and fall of her shoulders moving the mattress a little.

"Just because I don't envision ever getting married, doesn't mean I haven't imagined what it might be like to choose a gown or a cake."

The earlier levity was gone from Maura's voice. She sounded flat. She sounded sad. Jane regretted asking. She moved her hand the scant distance between them and rubbed Maura's forearm. Maura seemed to startle at the contact, turning to meet Jane's eyes again.

"Why are you so sure you'll never get married?"

Hazel eyes dipped to where their skin was touching. Another shrug.

"People don't want to marry me."

The statement was so matter-of-fact that Jane laughed. She knew it was the wrong reaction when Maura's arm was gently extracted from her gentle hold. The other woman turned onto her side, ostensibly to reach her wine glass. But she stayed that way, her back to Jane, for too long for that to be the reason. Jane pressed her lips together and reached out, putting a hand on Maura's hip.

"I'm sorry, Maur. I'm not laughing at you."

"Yes you are."

Her voice was low and thick and Jane felt a corresponding lump appear in her throat. She squeezed Maura's hip.

"I'm not. It's just so ridiculous that you think nobody would want to marry you. You're a beautiful, caring, intelligent _doctor_. You're pretty much the whole package, Maur. There are probably a gajillion people who would want to marry you."

Maura slowly lay back down. Jane's hand eased from Maura's hip to rest on her belly, feeling like she shouldn't break the contact between them at that moment. Maura smiled at her.

"That's sweet of you to say, Jane, but it's not accurate."

"Mau-"

"No, I understand what you mean. By society's usual standards, I should be a 'catch', yes? The type of woman that people want to take home to their parents and settle down with?"

Jane's forehead creased, but she nodded.

"Jeez, my Ma'd have a fit if I...I mean, if Frankie or Tommy ever brought home someone like you. She'd be on the phone bragging to Carla Talucci before you even got through the door."

A half-hearted smile was all she got before Maura grew serious again.

"In all the time you've known me, Jane, have I ever had a relationship that lasted more than a few weeks?"

Jane thought back, her thumb unconsciously stroking Maura's abdomen as she did so. She shook her head.

"Well...no, but tha-"

"No." Maura's hand came to cover Jane's, stilling her movements and gently squeezing her fingers. "When I said that I don't think I'll ever get married, it wasn't some whimsical statement about being a liberated, independent woman. I doubt I'll ever get married based on the evidence." She shrugged again, offering Jane a sad smile. "People leave me."

This time there was no laughter on Jane's lips; just a tremor as she realised that Maura was serious. And that it was true. Paddy Doyle made damn sure she never knew a thing about her birth parents or why they'd given her up. Her own parents had barely acknowledged her existence when she was growing up; happy to let her go off to foreign boarding schools and colleges where the other kids thought she was weird and boring. Her fancy pants fiancé had left her to go to Italy to make fake cashmere sweaters. The 'love of her life' had chosen the depths of Africa over her. Nobody ever chose Maura. Nobody ever stayed with Maura.

"Maura...I..." She had no idea what to say. Maura saved her.

"I'm not looking for pity or sympathy, Jane." She laced their fingers together, still resting on her belly. "It's fine. I understand."

"Well I don't!" Jane surprised them both with the vehemence in her words. Maura raised her eyebrows, a smile tugging at one side of her mouth as she recognised Jane's fierce protectiveness.

"Jane..."

"No, Maura, don't sit there an-"

"I'm lying down."

Jane rolled her eyes, but continued unperturbed. "Don't _lie_ there and expect me to agree that you are somehow unmarriable."

"That's not a word."

"It is now." Jane huffed and shook her head. "You are _amazing_, Maura. That stuff I said about you being beautiful and smart doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what you are."

Maura had now turned fully onto her side facing Jane; their joined hands lying on the mattress between them.

"And what am I, Jane?" Not quite a whisper.

"You..." Jane faltered. This had to be _right_. She pulled Maura's hand towards her, pressing it against her chest. "You are the _best_ person I know. You don't judge people. You _give_. You listen. You care." Jane could feel her voice breaking. "I am a better person because of you. You make my life better. You make me happier. You make me laugh. You make me care about myself. When I go out there and do crazy things, it's because I want to make the world safer for you. You are funny and goofy and ridiculous and a know-all and I love that about you." A tear was trickling down Maura's cheek. "You know what? Anyone who can't see all of that doesn't deserve to have you in their life. Anyone who can walk away from you is an idiot. And I know from firsthand experience that not having you around leaves a huge Maura-shaped hole in a person's heart." She swallowed hard. "And I don't want that to ever happen again. So I, for one, will not be leaving you." Her unusual emotional verbosity and Maura's silent reaction to it gave her the courage to continue. "And I'd marry you in a damn heartbeat if you'd have me."

They both stopped breathing at the same moment. Maura blinked.

"I'm not sure that would work, Jane."

Despite feeling like she'd been stabbed in the chest with a blunt, rusted knife, Jane somehow managed a smile.

"No...I...was...I just..." She couldn't bring herself to say she was kidding. A gentle finger covered her lips.

"I mean, for starters, where are we going to find a Red Sox Jersey with a 20 foot train?"

Jane looked up to meet Maura's eyes; wet with tears but twinkling with mischief.

"You gotta be...You choose _now_ to develop a sense of humour? _Now_? When I'm baring my soul?"

Maura tilted her head. "Would it help, by way of an apology, if I were to offer to kiss you?"

Jane's mouth snapped shut. "I...that, uh...that might he-" She wasn't allowed to finish before Maura's lips pressed against her own. She'd never, ever, felt comfortable kissing new people. Maura didn't feel like a new person. Maura felt like home. She pulled away far too soon and Jane twisted a hand into her hair to keep her close.

"Was I sorry enough?" Maura's words were warm against her lips. The slightly lower than usual timbre to her voice made Jane tingle in some interesting places. Without warning, she rolled over so that she was lying on top of Maura, one hand under her back and one still tangled in her hair. Both of Maura's hands crept up beneath her tank top, cool against the skin of her back.

"No, not sorry enough. I need a much longer apology." She leaned down and brushed her lips over the pliant ones below, over and over until they were both breathless and flushed. She pushed herself up onto her elbows, hovering over Maura who was looking up at her with bright eyes. Maura swallowed.

"Well, you did bare your soul to me. Perhaps I could bare something in return? If you'd like..."

Jane's eyes immediately dropped to Maura's chest, heaving against her own, and then back up.

"Really?" Jane's voice resembled that of a thirteen year old boy.

Easing a hand between them, Maura undid the first button on her shirt. She had barely loosened the second, when the door to Jane's apartment burst open.

"Jane? I brought some you some leftovers from the caf-oh my_ God! _What are you _doing_?"

At the sound of Angela's voice, both Jane and Maura froze in place, unsure of what to do. Jane, knowing there was no way out of the situation, took a deep breath and rolled off of Maura, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment as Maura deftly buttoned her shirt back up. Jane scrambled to her feet and folded her arms.

"Ever hear of knocking, Ma?"

Angela's righteous indignation died immediately. She put a hand over her heart, raising her eye to the heavens.

"Oh thank you Jesus! It's Maura." She turned to Jane with a wide grin. "I thought you had some slut in here!"

"Ma!" Jane barked, her eyes darting back and forward between her mother and Maura. Angela smacked her on the back of her head.

"Don't 'Ma' me, Jane Rizzoli! Maura's a classy lady." She waved a hand at the wine bottle and glasses. "You shouldn't be getting her drunk and ravishing her on a mattress on your living room floor! Take her out and buy her dinner! Treat her right!"

Maura was now on her feet too, and placed a gentle hand on Angela's arm.

"Angela, I appreciate your concern, but I believe I started the ravishment."

"Maura!" Jane yelped. "Don't tell her that!" She pointed at her mother. "And you! That's all you have to say? '_Oh, yay, it's Maura'_? No fire and brimstone and sin?"

Angela turned to Maura and rolled her eyes. "You see the things she thinks about her mother? Like I'd disown her over something like this?"

Amused at the exchange, Maura held Jane's eyes as she replied. "I'm sure Jane just doesn't want to disappoint you."

"Disappoint me?" Angela threw her arms up in the air and barrelled towards Jane, grabbing her face with both hands and pulling her down so they were at eye level. "You could _never_ disappoint me. You got that? All I want is for you to be happy and healthy. You keep messing up the 'healthy' part, but now I know you finally got your head out of your ass and fixed the 'happy' part." She kissed Jane on both cheeks. "And who could ever be disappointed in their kid dating Maura? She's perfect."

Jane looked over at Maura, who was blushing and sniffling. She held out a hand. "C'mere." Maura gladly joined the embrace, accepting her own cheek kisses from Angela.

They stood like that for a little while, before Angela squeezed them tightly and released them, stepping back and wiping at her eyes. .

"Now, I see I interrupted something here tonight so I'm gonna leave you to it and then ask you tomorrow why you haven't told me about this before." Angela's brow creased in thought. "Is this why Giovanni said you liked boobs now?"

Jane's eyebrows went up. "Uh..."

Shaking her head, Angela moved away from the couple. "Never mind, you can tell me tomorrow." She winked at Maura. "I won't wait up for you tonight."

Maura turned her face into Jane's shoulder, smiling softly. Jane ground her teeth and offered her mother a wide, fake smile.

"Well, as lovely as it was to have you barge in on our _first kiss_, we have a lot to talk about ourselves. So..." She pointed at the door. "If you wouldn't mind...?"

"Your first ki-..." She trailed off, incredulous. "You mean it took you _this long_ to make a move?"

Jane drew breath to make a retort, but Angela held up both hands. "Tell me tomorrow." She whipped out her cellphone. "Tell me everything tomorrow." She kissed each woman on the cheek and then pressed a button on the phone. "Carla? Guess who's dating a doctor. No, wait...guess who's dating the Chief Medical Examiner for the whole of the Eastern Seaboard?"

Maura held up a finger, calling after Angela.

"Actually Angela I'm only Chief of Mass-"

"Shhhh, leave her be." Jane pulled Maura into her arms as Angela closed the door, still talking animatedly to her friend. "By tomorrow you'll be Chief Medical Examiner of the United States. By next week, the world."

Maura let herself be cuddled. "It's nice...to be bragged about." Jane smiled into her hair.

"Give it a month, maybe two. You'll be as frustrated by her as the rest of us." Maura tipped her head back, dislodging Jane's chin, so she could look up at her.

"Will we be here in a month? Maybe two?"

Looking at the mattress on the floor and the abandoned wine glasses, Jane shook her head. "No." Before Maura's face had a chance to fall, she continued. "In a month we'll be at a nice restaurant. And in two months I'll be taking you dancing. And in six months, I'll let you drag me to an opera or a ballet or something. And in a year I-"

And hand over her mouth stopped her. Maura's eyes were shining, her voice shaking.

"And in a year, maybe we'll go to Fenway Park."

Jane's throat thickened. She fitted her hands around Maura's hips, as Maura's hands linked behind her neck. She leaned down, stopping just short of Maura's lips to whisper.

"Well, I _do_ like Hazelnut Almond."


End file.
